Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
“It’s not,” he agrees. “But when is life fair?” He kisses the top of my head. “I am going to take you home so you can shower and put on clean clothes. Devon will be out of surgery by then and we can decide.”
“That’s bullshit,” Theo goes on, speaking loudly. “You know what happens if we keep him as a vegetable too long. Look at Mabel! I don’t want another half-wit sibling to look after for all eternity.”
In a flash, Xavier has Theo up against the wall, slamming him into it so hard the plaster cracks.
“You would risk him for her?” Theo says through gritted teeth.
“I would risk the world for her,” Xavier says back and my heart jumps. My eyes widen, watching Xavier press his brother harder against the wall, both flashing their fangs. “One hour. We’ll be back in one hour.”
Xavier lets his brother go and speeds over to me. He takes my hand and starts to lead me down the hall. Theo shouts something in another language, and Xavier responds by flipping him off.
“Is it a good idea to leave?” I ask, voice cracking as I talk.
“You are covered in blood and in shock. I am taking you home for a warm shower,” he says definitely.
“Okay,” I just reply and keep a tight hold on his hand. We get down to the front of the hospital and Xavier stops, suddenly turning and pinning me up against a pillar of the awning.
“You could have died, Wren,” he growls, lips brushing against mine. My body shouldn’t be responding to him right now, not with everything going on. Maybe it’s because in the back of my mind, I need a distraction.
Or, a scarier truth: I’m falling in love with Xavier Malus.
“I didn’t,” I pant back, blood-covered hands going to his head. I rake my fingers through his dark hair. It’s swept back away from his face in an effortless way that looks so good on him.
“You put yourself at risk.”
“I did.”
He replies with a guttural growl and puts his lips to my neck, tongue sweeping over the little bite wounds that he left there yesterday. As suddenly as he started, he pulls away, taking my hand again. He opens the passenger side door of a sports car I haven’t yet been in, which reminds me that I left his G-Wagon by the warehouse.
“You’re shaking,” he notes, turning on my heated seat.
“I think it’s from the shock.”
He looks at me curiously for a second, almost like he doesn’t understand why I would tremble from shock. Right. He doesn’t usually deal with humans and our weaknesses so to speak. I put on my seatbelt and lean back, eyes falling shut. So much has happened in such little time I don’t even know where to start thinking.
Devon is the only thing on my mind.
“What if he doesn’t make it?” I whisper as Xavier starts the car, engine revving to life.
“The plan always was to turn him into a vampire,” Xavier tells me, somehow not getting emotional. Is life and death just such a part of his eternal afterlife that it doesn’t faze him? He has seen a lot of humans die over the years. Hell, he’s killed a lot of humans.
“After he knocked me up,” I can’t help but grumble.
“That plan changed the moment you became my wife.”
“What?” I turn, looking at my vampire husband.
“You think I would let another man touch you?” He takes his eyes off the road to look at me incredulously. I blink once. Twice. There is no way Xavier would let anyone touch me and live…even his own biological descendant.
“He…he told me that he doesn’t want to be a vampire anymore,” I finally admit after we’re speeding along the highway. Xavier glances at me, and I can tell he’s struggling with how to be supportive right now. He’s never really cared what Devon wants. He’ll do what is best for the family…what’s best for him.
“Did he give you a reason?”
My mind is blanking. Because he did, but…what was it? “He wants to live his own life by his own rules.”
“Wren, he won’t live at all.” His hand lands on my thigh and I link my fingers through his. “He’s not going to survive this, not as a human. I’m not taking you home to shower with the hopes that by the time we get back to the hospital, he’ll have made a miraculous recovery. Because he won’t.”
Tears bite at the corners of my eyes and I don’t even try to hold them back. “The last thing he said was to not let you turn him.”
Xavier just nods and speeds around a car. “And you’re worried he’s going to be angry if you let me turn him?”
“I don’t know. It sounds silly when you say it like that. I don’t think he’d want to die either.”